“Brain, Heart, World” docuseries put on by CCO

A preacher who leads a campus Christian club said in March that students who seek counseling for an addiction to pornography feel “empty and alone.”

Isaac Vineyard, head of the Coalition for Christian Outreach on campus, made the remarks after showing the first part of the docuseries “Brain, Heart, World,” a three-episode film about the negative effects of pornography.

“I hope that they take away an understanding that they’re not alone, that there is hope, that their story isn’t set; they can change if they want to,” Vineyard told Campus Current. “Some people are engaging in pornography and they don’t see problems at all. And for them I hope they walk away with the understanding of this is bigger and deeper than what you thought and it affects more than you thought.”

The film focuses on the impact of pornography on romantic relationships, brain development and health, and the psychological effects on the viewer.

Emily Traveson, an AACC student, said the way the film presented the information surprised her.

“It wasn’t preachy and it wasn’t gospel-y, which I don’t have a problem with,” Traveson said. Traveson, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, said she did not feel the stigma that she usually does at Christian-sponsored events.

Traveson said she knew most of the facts in the documentary, but added, “I’m glad that the story is getting out because it is honestly an issue that needs to be addressed.”

AACC student Marrissa Parker, on the other hand, said she walked into the seminar feeling nervous. Parker, who plans to become a marriage counselor, called pornography a “touchy subject.”

After she watched the videos, she said, she feels “fine now, more assured, informed.”

“It gave me more insight on how it impacts relationships with people,” she said. “If I were to assume that the reason people were looking at it [is] because they weren’t satisfied with the relationship, I would be assuming. But now I don’t.”

Likewise, Lizzy Overton, a second-year AACC student and CCO member, said she “didn’t know what to expect or how many people would show up.” She also said she did not know whether the documentary would be a “preachy in-your-face type thing or more easy-going and laid back. … I thought it was a really good, welcoming approach. Like kind of neutral but also in a fun, engaging way.”

Jesse Klassen, a member of a local church youth group who attended the event with Vineyard, said he was “pleasantly surprised.

I’ve seen a documentary about this stuff before,” he said. “I came because I struggled in the past with this issue. … They normally say, ‘It’s a guy struggle, it’s a guy struggle.’ This documentary [showed me] half of the people were females that struggled with this.”

Overton said the film “made me kind of look in retrospect at my relationships. … Even if that’s not something that I struggle with, it just made me kind of take a look at my own life and realize, ‘Whoa, how are my habits? What am I interested in? What are my hobbies? How does that affect my relationship with other people? How can I be aware of other people who are struggling with this?’ That was kind of an eye-opener for me.”

Overton and Klassen said they realized the effects of pornography are greater than they thought. The film indicated more than 1 billion people suffer from porn addiction.